Inspired Acting
I had to check the page number to be sure. Kissing Lady Vinnebel, from pages 183 through 210? That was almost the whole scene.
While our fellow actors red through the script- dull lines about the honor and duty of Lord Vinnebel- I looked over at who would be playing Lady Vinnebel. Jesse Huang, sophomore. I was a freshman at the university, and new to theater. She was a veteran: cool and composed.
"Oh, you cad, take me! Quickly, before my husband returns. "Her voice was high and trembling, her face an expressionless mask as she read.
Drat- that was my cue. I scanned what I had highlighted for Lord Dellente, the Cad. "ER. Let him come, Jes- Lady. Now I have you, nothing can separate us. Thrust-" I trailed off; the other actors started laughing. Whoops, thrust was a stage direction. Thrust. A stage direction.
My face turned beat red as the reading continued. My stomach spun with anxiety. This scene called us to act out a little more then kissing. Across the table, I thought I saw Jesse glance at me.
The stomach-ache persisted two months later, the night of the dress-rehearsal. My 18
th
century apparelled suit felt tight and itchy on me, and I felt very little like a real actor.
On state, Jesse looked every inch Lady Vinnebel. She finished her monologue, loudly proclaiming her liberty. Her voice shook, a lock of her long black hair falling out of over her enraptured face. The long blue dress flowed from her bared shoulders with a fairy-tale style- tight at her waist, then billowing out over an exaggerated hoopskirt. She looked so in the roll; I almost forgot my cue to come on.
But I stumbled on stage. In the first row, the director cut me a glare. I swallowed.
"Luh-lady. You are electric tonight. I expect me to refuse me, as ever. But yet... " But yet, my request? No, my invitation. "But yet, my invitation still stands. This very night, throw off your binds, and be mine."
Jess drew near. Her dark eyes raked the empty theater. "I will not be yours, Dellente."
"I am my own."
And then she kissed me. Standing up on tiptoe, her warm lips rested up onto mine. I froze. What was happening. Yes, this was in the scene, but what was happening.
Her lips brushed my cheek, resting by my ear. "Kiss me back, dumbass. You're supposed to pick me up in a second."
Oh. Oh yes, that was true.
Just trying to trust my gut, I leaned down to meet her lips. She was warm, but her lips were soft against mine. I slipped her lower lip between mine, sliding her into me. Then I leaned down, catching her back so she could rock back onto her heals. Jesse threw her arms over my neck, and thankfully I remembered that was the signal.
I slung her up, and we headed upstage to a platform illustrated to look like a bed. The entire time we continued to find each other, sliding, nibbling, and sucking. The script had called for Lady Vinnebel and Lord Dellente to "kiss passionately and sensually", and it seemed Jese intended to fulfill the role.
When I rolled on top of her on the platform, she angled our faces so we were clearly visible to the audience. Then she slid her tongue in so far it hit my throat.
She pulled back when I froze up. "Hey, what's up. You ok with this?" Her eyes were off the audience, searching mine.
Yes. Yes, I was ok, just shook. I was--I could be, a professional. Just like her.
"Uh yeah," I whispered back. "I'm ok, just stage fright. Um. Let me know if I do anything impolite, ok?"
I thought I heard her snort, but then I was buried in her lip's attention. Her body was hot against mine, and every time she pressed her mouth against my neck, my pulse pushed higher.
Downstage, Lord Vinnebel and his brother took center, beginning their discussion. The two pairs created a farcical juxtaposition. Lord Vinnebel's dry speech on honor and duty, while in the back, his wife had her way with a bachelor. Situational irony, the director had explained.
I wasn't thinking of irony. Not really anything but the way Jesse's face reacted when I gently bit her lip.
It wasn't until she slid on top of me that I realized my mistake. I'd let myself get to caught up on the scene. And I'd forgotten that my entire body wasn't onboard for the professionalism bit. My dick had gone fully erect, currently straining against my costume. By then she was kissing me again, hands pulling my hair, and my concentration fractured.
Then it was our line. She straightened up on top of me, a low moan escaping her lips. "I... ugh. I've lived a life dedicated to the... needs of others. The wants of others. I want you. Take me, you cad, before my husband comes!" Her voice was artfully ragged, but still clear and echoing.
I girded myself. This could end up awkward as hell. But hopefully, no more awkward then standing up and leaving mid-scene. "I am yours, Lady. And now that I have you, I shall fill you with my devotion."
I thrust up, and soon broke into a bucking rhythm as Dellente supposedly began to fuck Lady Vinnebel. Jesse straddled my rising hips, her hands raking her chest, mouth flying open. Fuck, I knew it was an act, but that didn't make her less painfully gorgeous. Her hips seemed set right over my cock, and I was terrified there was no way she could fail to feel to the erection in my pants sliding under her.
But she never stopped her passionate recital of love. And after the dress-rehearsal, she never dragged me aside to ask -- "Ew, were you
hard?"
Instead, the morning of opening night, she brought me a perogy.
"Hey." She sat down next to me, shoving the food onto my plate. "Try this, best thing in the cafeteria.
Well. Ok. I scarved it down, and damn if it wasn't better than the cold pizza.
"You did good last night. Like, not anywhere terrible. I think its cool you tried something out fof your comfort zone."
That was the most she'd said to me before, off stage. She stopped talking and began devouring a pile of perogies without any transition. Throughout, her face was set and neutral, eyes a little puffy from the late night previously. But still, I couldn't forget her from her monologue--bold, every emotion captured in her words.
Or her face, the look when she'd flipped on top of me...
"Um. Thanks! Yeah, I also thought it was cool kissing you." My spine dropped into the earth. "I mean, acting together. That, that was cool." Hopefully I'd choke on this meal and die within seconds.
She wiped her face. Then she looked back at me. I felt her examine my face, then my neck, my chest... I started feeling a little self-conscious.
"Hey." Her voice had changed, there was an element of... teasing? "How do you like doing something dangerous?"
I was confused. I mean, I'd signed up for this crazy role, hadn't I? "Uh. It's fine?"
"Ok. Ok, cool. See you tonight."
I was still turning over her words when opening night began. There had been some ghost of a smile to her that I couldn't chase out of my thoughts. Her face, very cute face, I decided, kept bubbling up to the surface. My stomach churned.
But the anxiety had to be because of the play, right? The auditorium had nearly filled. Students I recognized from lectures, some of my friends from my hall, even some professors. I'd never acted in something this big, and I felt like a tin can in a crusher.
Jesse didn't seem nervous in the slightest. In our first scene together, she was every inch Lady Vinnebel -- poised and flirtatious. Her energy seemed to infect me. I realized I did remember my lines and I could be Lord Dellente.
It wasn't until we left stage that I started thinking. She was flirty in character, right? When she'd grabbed my arm on stage, she hadn't meant to kickstart my heart the way she did. The anticipation only grew until the scene of our kiss. Thinking of her pressed against me, of the way her mouth dropped open when I bit her neck... I couldn't focus.
But on stage with her, I was like a dreamer waking up. Her taunts made me laugh in Lord Dellente's baritone chuckle, and even though I knew I looked tall and sharp in my suit, she was an equal fore in her billowing blue dress.
And then it was her. Her line- "I am my own."
This time when our lips met, there were a point of contact guiding our bodies together. I slid my hand behind her back, pushing back up into me. She responded, groaning into my mouth. She pulled my hair, and I ad-libbed "Egad!"
There were amused mutters from the crowd, and a couple cheers. It didn't seem like Lord Vinnebel was popular. I almost felt sorry for him.
However, I was quite focused on the wild person in my arms. When I tried to tug her lip up between mine, she caught my own lip with her tongue, pressing me against her teeth. When I tried to slide away, she pulled my face closer, digging her hands further into my scalp. It sort of hurt, but not in a way that did anything to make me want to stop.
Instead, I nestled nibbles in a line down her neck, allowing her to turn her gasping face in dramatic profile to the audience. I bit hard on her exposed shoulder.
